Here are a some suggested tips for recruiting
online participants for an online research survey and/or experiment (be mindful of and
abide by the IRB standards of your research institution):
The Internet provides researchers with an unique opportunity to reach
a large number of participants. However, while some online
research studies are able to recruit online participants, other studies
falter. Before deciding to use the Internet to gather data, the
researcher should thoroughly consider whether the project is appropriate
for an online study. Some questions to ask include: Is the
study too long? Does the study ask a lot of personal information?
Is the targeted population on the Internet?
You need to have your plan for recruitment firmly in place before
beginning your data collection. Don't put all your eggs in one
basket -- while you may have a source of participants that sounds "just
perfect", always have a backup ready to go.
Ask only those questions that you actually need answers to.
Keep in mind that each question you ask translates into more time for
your participants.
Once a survey is up and running on the Internet in the form of web
pages, it can be difficult and costly to make changes. You can lose or
frustrate potential participants who try to access a web page that is
down, throw your dataset out of whack by moving or changing question, or
cause other problems. Therefore, be certain of all questions, response
formats (i.e., likert-style), and directions before you move forward
with putting your research online.
Once you have decided to use the Internet to gather data, the next
step is recruiting subjects. I have come up with a few ideas,
which I hope you find useful.
 |
StudyResponse.com is
an online resource that send emails concerning research studies to a
registered sample of
participants. You must have IRB (human subjects) approval and must be willing to
follow their guidelines to use the subject pool. |
| You can create a page or website with keyword rich content
describing your study in such a way as to attach interested
participants. An example is
AllAboutDepression -- this site has grown from a dissertation
project to a valuable resource on the Internet. |
| Depending on the budget of the research project, you could run
advertisements (online & offline). Online choices includes
Adwords or
Adbrite. Offline choices
include local or national magazine or newspaper ads, as well as
flyers. |
| Another way to recruit potential participants is to identify and exchange links with
websites that cater to your sample of interest. Once you have
identified potential websites, you can send an email to the website's
posted contact email address introducing yourself, your credentials,
your study and your proposed plan. Also, be mindful of the
tenets of email
etiquette. |
| If you choose to recruit participants with an email or newsgroup
announcement, use caution. Spam is a big problem and you do not
want to turn off potential participants. You don't want to come
off as a spammer. If posting to a
newsgroup always get moderator permission, if there is one. |
|
Psychological Research on the Net -- A list hosted by the American
Psychological Society which features links to known research studies
on the internet that are social science related. Individuals
running an online study/experiment send an email announcement to have their
site added to the list. |
|
Lab United - International
Online Research -- Provides a list of ongoing online studies.
Individuals running an online study can use the submit form on the
website to have their site added to the list. |
|
Online Social
Psychology Studies -- This page contains links to web-based
experiments, surveys, and other social psychology studies.
Individuals running a study can use the web-based form to have their
study added to the list. |
|
The Web Experiment
List -- This page features an archive of current and past web
experiments. Individual can use the online form to add their
study to the list. In addition, for $30 per month, the study can
be listed on
Web Experimental Psychology Lab. Site owners claim they
receive over 4,000 hits a month. |
|
Applied
Primary Research -- A commercial enterprise that also accepts
links from non-commercial research of social value |
